Miracle painter

Artist Yitzhak Pressburger survived the Shoah through a series of fortuitous incidents.

Jerusalem scenes play an important role in Pressburger’s art..
(photo credit:Courtesy)

Many Holocaust survivors talk about miracles that happened along the way to their eventual rescue. One of them is Yitzhak Pressburger, who says his road to survival was paved with numerous lucky escapes and propitious turns of events.The 80-year-old artist was born in Bratislava – known for centuries by its German name of Pressburg – but the outbreak of World War II found him and his family in Prague. His father realized they had to escape from the Nazi occupiers and tried to get the family across the border into Hungary. However, they were caught near the crossing point, arrested and incarcerated overnight at the nearby railway station.